Grooming: how Focolare deceives new members (and an introduction to the language of 'Focolarese')

While I was living in the Liverpool Focolare community in the mid-seventies and was leader of the Gen - Focolare youth movement - in the UK, we used to have national monthly meetings there for the handful of 'gen boys' in the UK, aged roughly 16-20.   A young family lived next door and we made friends with them, although they had no real idea of what we were up to.  Their eldest son was 16, rather shy, and so we invited him to the Gen meetings.  After attending these meetings for several months, this young man approached me and asked, with a puzzled expression, 'Does this have something to do with God?'  

Anybody familiar with the Focolare Movement, and certainly anyone who has been or is currently an internal member, knows that its main aim is proselytising.  The entire Focolare year is geared around proselytising, with key moments in spring - day meetings - and summer - the Mariapolis.  The approach was always very subtle. After all, we were obliged, like communists, to set up units even in our workplace: thise was known as the 'grappolo' (in Italian, grappolo means bunch, as in 'bunch of grapes'). The typical introduction to the movement, often quoted in 'experiences' or testimonies of members, is 'Come and meet my friends' - no mention of  religion, God, Jesus.  I'm sure, however, that at the Gen meetings attended by our young next door neighbour, there were plenty of references to Chiara Lubich.  But when he asked me, 'Does this have something to do with God,' I was astonished.  Even as a hard-liner, it made me think: are we being a bit too subtle here - is there an element of deception?  Are we liars?

Of course, it was deception, pure and simple.  The bland invitation to 'Come and meet my friends' would result in an encounter at a 'meeting' where the victim would be overwhelmed by 'love-bombing' and that process known as 'making yourself one' - ie pretending to agree wth everything the victim says and that you share all his or her tastes.    

Given the element of secrecy that enshrouds the process of proselytising in the Focolare movement, it is hardly surprising that the Focolare 'language' - let's call it 'Focolarese' (as in Chinese) - its vast 'elaborated code' of terms, either invented or redefined, is full of words and phrases referring to this process of proselytising which only internal members can understand.  An extreme example would be 'popabile'.  This is a pun on the term 'papabile' used in the Catholic Church to refer to a Cardinal who has the potential of becoming pope (It. papa).  In Focolare jargon, however, 'popo' or 'popa', meaning 'child' in Chiara Lubich's Trentino dialect, refers to a full time internal member of the movement.  So 'popabile' means someone has the potential of becoming a full time member, but it means nothing to an outsider so could be used in their presence without them understanding.   In Italian, there is a saying 'Piano, piano, si va lontano' (slow and steady wins the race).  In Focolarese it becomes, 'Piano, piano, si va a Loppiano' (Slow and steady, you go to Loppiano - ie the movement's -  training centre in Tuscany).  Definitely the implication of something sneaky here, of subterfuge.

But there are a host of other words in Focolarese which have had their meanings altered from normal Italian usage, all refering to a person's potential for membership of the movement, covering an incredibly subtle range of meanings.  'Carino' or 'carina' in normal Italian means cute (i.e. a young man might say, 'She's cute'; or a gay man might say, 'He's cute') but in the Focolare sense it refers to a fairly general potential for membership of the movement. 'Carissimo' (dearest) is much stronger and would also probably denote someone's potential as an internal member.  'Bravo'  or 'bravissimo'  - 'capable' or 'very capable' in normal Italian, also refer to someone's potential within the movement, usually with reference to some practical action - conquering new members or raising large amouns of money.  The term 'in gamba' - which usually means smart - is an even more enthusiastic term with a similar sense - someone who can come up with the goods from the movement's point of view - more followers, more money, more attention from important people.   'Lanciato' or 'lanciatissimo' literally means 'launched' or 'very launched' and is used to describe members of the movement who are transported by their enthusiasm for the activities of the movement.  A good translation for 'lanciatissimo' could be 'manic'.  Whether 'lanciato' means anything to Italians outside the Focolare movement I couldn't really say.   Buono', 'good' in the moral sense in everyday Italian, also means 'good' or 'kind' in Focolarese, but with a patronising overtone, i.e. 'good but not much good to the movement.'

The word most commonly used for proselytising in the movement is 'cultivating'.  Given the secrecy with which this is carried out and given the instensity with which it can be applied to a targeted individual, it is very close in meaning to what is called, in the case of paedophiles, 'grooming'.  There is another commonly used term for cultivating - 'prenderli dentro' o 'prenderlo dentro' which, literally translated means 'take them in' or 'take him in', and it could well be understood in exactly the sense it has in English.  In theory, this hidden, deceitful process of 'cultivating' or 'grooming' makes the Focolare movement the ideal nursery for paedophiles and their prey.  In reality, evidence shows that in a major case of paedofilia in the Focolare movement in France, not only were the victims groomed, or 'cultivated, but so were their families, giving the predator virtual carte blanche.  

In another case of sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult, a young man was the long-term lover of a leading, considerably older, full time focolarino (extensive correspondence held in archives).  Out of the blue, after many years, the focolarino, dumped the young man, leaving him devastated.  What is most shocking about this case is that, though this bright young man knew his partner lived in the Focolare community, though he had frequently eaten supper with the focolarini, performed many DIY taks for them, attended meetings, parties, even funerals, he had absolutely no idea that there was any kind of structure or hierarchy in the movement and that his lover had taken a vow of poverty.  This is communal deception raised to new heights and the perfect environment in which vulnerable adults, such as this young man, and minlors can be abused sexually and in other ways.  I wonder if even totalitarian states such as Nazis and Communists have ever come up with such a practical system of mass deception.

Look out for future blogs on Focolarese and why everyone is vulnerable in realtion to the Focolare Movement

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Adescamento: come il movimento dei Focolari inngana nuovi membri - e introduzione a Focolarese, la lingua dei focolarini

 

Quando, a metà degli anni Settanta, vivevo nella comunità dei Focolari di Liverpool ed ero leader dei Gen - movimento giovanile dei Focolari - nel Regno Unito, tenevamo li incontri nazionali mensili per il manipolo di "ragazzi Gen" nel Regno Unito, di età compresa tra i 16 e i 20 anni.   Nella casa accanto, viveva una giovane famiglia con cui abbiamo fatto amicizia, anche se non avevano idea di cosa stessimo facendo.  Il loro figlio maggiore aveva 16 anni, piuttosto timido, e lo invitammo alle riunioni dei Gen.  Dopo aver frequentato questi incontri per diversi mesi, questo giovane mi ha avvicinato e mi ha chiesto, con un'espressione perplessa: "Ma questo ha qualcosa a che fare con Dio?".  

Chi conosce il Movimento dei Focolari, e certamente chi ne è stato o ne è attualmente membro interno, sa che il suo obiettivo principale è il proselitismo.  L'intero anno focolarino è incentrato sul proselitismo, con momenti chiave in primavera - incontri grandi di una giornata sola - e in estate, le mariapoli.  La maniera di avvincinare la gente è sempre molto sottile. La tipica introduzione al movimento, spesso citata nelle "esperienze" o nelle testimonianze dei membri, è "Vieni a conoscere i miei amici" - nessun accenno alla religione, a Dio, a Gesù.   Sono sicuro che alle riunioni Gen, a cui partecipava il nostro giovane vicino di casa, i riferimenti a Chiara Lubich non mancavano.  Ma quando mi ha chiesto: "Ha qualcosa a che fare con Dio?", sono rimasto stupito.  Anche se ero della linea dura come focolarino, mi ha fatto pensare: c'e un po troppo sfumatura qui - c'è un elemento di inganno?  Siamo dei bugiardi?

Naturalmente si trattava di un inganno puro e semplice.  Il 'semplice' invito "vieni a conoscere i miei amici" si traduceva in un "incontro" in cui la vittima veniva travolta da "love-bombing" e da quel processo noto come "farsi uno", ossia fingere di essere d'accordo con tutto ciò che la vittima dice e di condividere tutti i suoi gusti.    

Dato l'elemento di segretezza che avvolge il processo di proselitismo nel movimento dei Focolari, non sorprende che la "lingua" dei Focolari - chiamiamola "focolarese" (pronunciato come in 'cinese') - il suo vasto "codice elaborato" di termini, inventati o ridefiniti - sia pieno di parole e frasi che si riferiscono a questo processo di proselitismo e che solo i membri interni possono capire.  Un esempio estremo è "popabile".  Si tratta di un gioco di parole sul termine "papabile" usato nella Chiesa cattolica per indicare un cardinale che ha il potenziale per diventare papa.  Nel gergo dei focolari, invece, "popo" o "popa", che nel dialetto trentino di Chiara Lubich significa "bambino", si riferisce a un membro interno del movimento a tempo pieno.  Quindi "popabile" significa che qualcuno ha il potenziale per diventare un membro a tempo pieno, ma non significa nulla per un esterno e quindi potrebbe essere usato in sua presenza senza che lo capisca.   Il detto: "Piano, piano, si va lontano", in focolarese diventa "Piano, piano, si va a Loppiano" (cioè il centro di allenamento del movimento - in Toscana).  È evidente l'implicazione di qualcosa di subdolo, di un sotterfugio.

Ma ci sono un'infinità di altre parole in Focolarese che hanno subito un'alterazione di significato rispetto all'uso italiano normale, tutte riferite al potenziale di appartenenza di una persona al movimento, con una gamma di significati incredibilmente sottile.  "Carino" o "carina" in italiano normale si riferisce all'apparenza di una persona - ad esempio, un giovane potrebbe dire: "È carina"; oppure un uomo gay potrebbe dire: "È carino", ma nel senso focolarino si riferisce a un potenziale abbastanza generale di appartenenza al movimento. "Carissimo" è molto più forte e denota anche il potenziale di qualcuno come membro interno.  "Bravo" o "bravissimo" si riferiscono al potenziale di qualcuno all'interno del movimento, di solito in riferimento a qualche azione pratica - la conquista di nuovi membri o la raccolta di grandi somme di denaro.  Il termine "in gamba" è un termine ancora più entusiasta con un senso simile: qualcuno che può ottenere i risultati migliori dal punto di vista del movimento - più seguaci, più soldi, più attenzione da parte di persone importanti.   "Lanciato" o "lanciatissimo" viene usato per descrivere i membri del movimento che si lasciano trasportare dall'entusiasmo per le attività del movimento.  Una buona definizione di "lanciatissimo" potrebbe essere "maniacale".  Non saprei dire se "lanciato" abbia un significato per italiani al di fuori del movimento dei Focolari.   "Buono " significa anche "gentile" o "generoso" in Focolarese, ma con un tono paternalistico, cioè "buono ma non molto buono per il movimento".

Il termine più comune nel movimento per indicare il proselitismo nel movimento è "coltivare".  Data la segretezza con cui viene svolto e data l'intensità con cui può essere applicato a un individuo mirato, il suo significato è molto vicino a quello che, nel caso dei pedofili, viene chiamato "adescamento".  Esiste un altro termine usato dai focolarini per indicare la coltivazione: "prenderli dentro" o "prenderlo dentro" che potrebbe essere inteso nel senso che letteralmente ha in inglese: ingannare.  In teoria, questo processo nascosto e ingannevole di "coltivazione" o "adescamento" rende il movimento dei Focolari il vivaio ideale per i pedofili e le loro prede.  In realtà, le prove dimostrano che in un importante caso di pedofilia nel movimento dei Focolari in Francia, non solo le vittime sono state adescate, o "coltivate", ma anche le loro famiglie, dando al predatore carte blanche.  

In un altro caso di abuso sessuale su un adulto vulnerabile, un giovane uomo era l'amante a lungo termine di un focolarino a tempo pieno, un capo nel movimento molto più anziano (ampia corrispondenza conservata negli archivi).  Di punto in bianco, dopo molti anni, il focolarino ha scaricato il giovane, lasciandolo sconvolto.  La cosa più sconvolgente di questo caso è che questo giovane intelligente, pur sapendo che il suo compagno viveva nella comunità dei Focolari, pur avendo spesso cenato con i focolarini, eseguito molti lavori di bricolage per loro, partecipato a incontri, feste e persino funerali, non aveva assolutamente idea che ci fosse un qualche tipo di struttura o gerarchia nel movimento e che la sua amante avesse fatto voto di povertà.  Si tratta di un inganno comunitario elevato a nuove vette e dell'ambiente perfetto in cui adulti vulnerabili, come questo giovane, e minori possono essere abusati sessualmente e in altri modi.  Mi chiedo se perfino gli Stati totalitari come i nazisti e i comunisti abbiano mai ideato un sistema così pratico di inganno di massa.

Nei prossimi giorni, nuovi blog sulla lingua Focolarese e su perché tutti sono vulnerabili in relazione al Movimento dei Focolari.

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Entirely new exit-counselling methods required for Catholic movements - like Focolare - which meet the criteria of cults

Twenty seven years ago, I wrote The Pope's Armada (Bantam Press in the UK and editions in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, USA and Brazil), the first-ever expose and analysis of cult-like movements in the Catholic Church: Focolare, the Neocatechumenate  and Communion and Liberation.  At the time, the Vatican and many Catholics considered it inconceivable that organisations officially approved by the Church and strongly supported by popes such as 'Saint' John Paul II and Benedict XVI (who even saw them replacing religious orders), could be accused of using cult-like methods.  In spite of the fact that I had been an internal member of the Focolare movement and the book was meticulously reserached using only primary evidence,  its many charges of abuse against Focolare and similar movements were never officially acknowledged by the hierarchy.  Only now are Pope Francis and the Vatican's Dicastery for the Laity taking these movements to task for all the reasons given in The Pope's Armada so long ago.  Nevertheless, this process has been dilatory and half-hearted, especially from the point of view of ex-members, many of whom have been profoundly damaged by abuse of power in these organisations which trumpeted their Catholic and papal credentials.

Over the years I have received many letters and emails, and had meetings in person with ex-members of these movements, particularly Focolare, of which I myself was a member for 9 years.  All of them found my descriptions and analysis identical to their own experience, and described the profound and healing effect this had on them.  

I, and other ex-members of the movements in question, have found the matrix of a cult, with all the characteristics it entails, vital in gaining an understanding of these Catholic movements.  Yet I have become increasingly convinced that the exit-counselling methods used for other cults such as Jevohah's Witnesses and the even more fanciful cults, which claim to be religions or 'churches' though in reality they don't resemble either, are not necessarily appropriate for ex-members of Catholic cults.  It was for this reason that nearly ten years ago I studied hynotherapy and counselling so that I could develop more suitable methods for the needs of  former members of Catholic cults.

One of the crucial differences is that most members of Catholic cults were recruited not randomly,  but from within the Church - and they tended to be among the Church's most coveted members - devout and very generous.  They were people who gained sense and purpose from their lives as Catholics.  Indeed, their initial reason for taking Focolare seriously was that it was supported by the Church, indeed, by the Pope.  Tragically, all of those who have left the Focolare movement have had their belief in the Christian message challenged.  More drastically, in many cases they have lost their belief in Christianity and God. 

The greatest leakage is from the full time focolarini with vows.  According to the movement's own records (which, if anything has played the numbers down), out of a total membership of 2000 fulltime members, 444 left between 2000 and 2014.  The more recent figures are probably worse.   The strongest support for Focolare - in the social media, for example - tends to be from fringe members.  This is because Focolare is so secretive and members on the fringes have no ideas what goes on behind Focolare's closed doors - the abuse of power and authority that has driven out many full time members and in many cases snuffed out their faith.

One of the problems I faced,  in my own case and that of others, was being able to distinguish between the cult experience in Focolare and my - or their - core beliefs.  Many of my readers have said to me, 'But you can't possibly still be a Catholic?'  I have never had doubts about Catholicism and have always considered myself a Catholic even when I disagreed with certain emphases from the hierarchy - the rampant homophobia of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, for example.  I was fortunate, however, that before I met the movement, I had acquired the convictions of an adult Catholic through reading, courses and other organisations of which I had been a member.  For the majority of those who joined the Focolare movement, especially at a very young age, this was not the case.  Following the dictatorial teachings of the foundress, Chiara Lubich, Focolare is strongly anti-intellectual.  Catholic teaching that faith and reason are not incompatible has little meaning for those who have been told for years to ignore reason, 'put their books in the attic' and 'cut off their heads'.  This dangerous teaching of Focolare, keeps members hooked, but once they decide to leave, they have no intellectual background to fall back on.   

Faith cannot be imposed.  It is something highly personal - and, for those who aquire faith,  in many cases hard-won.  Personally, I am highly sceptical of entire nations who abjure or aquire faith.  I would be fascinated to know, for example, the mechanism by which former communist countries pass from state atheism to packed churches.  As I understand it, that is not how faith works.  Faith is metanoia:  a profound personal change which resembles no other.  

From my own experience and that of others, I am convinced that a new form of exit-counselling from Catholic cults should be developed.  Seeing the reaction to my accounts of life in Focolare and the horror and suspicion it seemed to generate in others, and how intimidating this felt to me, I rapidly came to the conclusion that it was best not to address the subject with friends.  For many years I had one or two friends who had also been internal members I had known fairly well in the movement and with them I could speak freely, though rarely, as one lived in Italy and the other in the USA, and these were pre-internet times.  Former members of Focolare can feel such shame and embarassment about having been a member of what later turns out to have been a cult, that they dare not mention it even to the closest friends.  One of the two ex-members I mentioned earlier - Italian and a psychologist by profession - permanently hid from his wife the fact that he had been a full time member of Focolare for ten years.   I used to meet him at his surgery in a major Italian city because he would not have been able to explain to his wife how we knew one another!  

Why is such shame and embarassment necessary for victims?   The only shame and embarassment should be felt be the Church authorities who have shrugged off or deliberately ignored this problem for so long when the evidence was staring them in the face.  Exit-counselling of former members of Catholic cults can only be carried out with a true understanding of the various stages of their introduction to, experience within, and exit from, the movement and in relation to their previous convictions with a new form of exit-counselling developed for this very particular and specialised area.   I fear that without such skills there are two undesirable outcomes:  the first is that subject feels that they have not been fully understood by the counsellor and the process runs aground and nothing is resolved; or the second is that the subject rejects the problem completely because having to look back at the experience in the movement, without any kind of real understanding of the process, is simply unbearable.

What is astonishing is that the Church itself still does not seem to be aware of this need.  It has taken over two decades for the Catholic Church to acknowledge and take any kind of action against the abusive and harmful presence of cultish organisations in its midst.  An Apostolic Visitation imposed on the Memores Domini section of Communion and Liberation and Pope Francis' scolding of Focolare leaders during an audience in tha Vatican on 6 February 2021 are recent examples.   But the Vatican is still dragging its feet.  Its response to innumerable complaints from current and former members of Focolare - that is, no serious disciplinary measures against Focolare whatsoever - demonstrates that the Catholic Church's claim to put the needs of victims above those of the perpetrators is still just words.  Pope Francis warned Focolare leaders that they must not put the needs of the institution over those of individuals.  But in Focolare's case, that is exactly what the institutional Church is doing.  Are they afraid of the consequences of sending in an Apostolic Visitation?  As the person who has been studying Focolare and other Catholic cults longer than anyone else, my response is: they should be.  But the longer they wait, the worse the scandal will be when everything is made public.

OREF (ORganization Ex Focolare), formed by ex-members of Focolare earlier this year, including myself,  has compiled and submitted a Document on abuses carried out by the Focolare movement as part of the initial stage of the forthcoming Synod on Synodality, which was, for the first time in history, opened by Pope Francis to the participation of the laity.  To date, a limited number of copies of this report have been dispatched: to the Synod; the Dicastery for the Laity; the Pope; the bishops conferences of the members of OREF, and so far  have only received a single response - from the Conference of Italian Bishops. 

I have a personal question I would like to out to both Pope Francis and Cardinal Farrell, head of the Dicastery on the Laity:  'Do you not think that an organisation which converts a large number of its most committed members from devout and generous Catholics to atheism cries out for your immediate and drastic attention?'   Surely those who rob others of their faith are among those givers of scandal whom Jesus said should have a millstone tied around their necks and be thrown into the sea?  I challenge that to to continue to ignore this situation is an absurd and heartless betrayal by those entrusted to be the pastors of the faithful and the servants of the servants of God.

One of the most astonishing dramatic scenes in a Puccini opera - and there are plenty of them - comes at the end of Act One of his verismo shocker Tosca set in the Roman church of Sant'Andrea della Valle* (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVR5YXubxRU).  Against Puccini's mighty choral setting of the Te Deum, the opera's villain, Scarpia, terrifyingly sings, 'Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!'  - 'Tosca, you make me forget God!'  There are many former members of the Focolare movement, who, equally terrifyingly,  could lament, 'Chiara, you made me forget God.'  However her followers might attempt to temper this charge, it is the shocking truth.  And all the expressions of sympathy 'for your suffering' from the focolarini are not going to mitigate this damage in the slightest. 

*Ironically, the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle was regarded as the church of the 'community' of the Focolare Movement when it first established itself in Rome.